Fruits like these apples don't pick themselves. It takes hardworking farmhands to make that happen, but often those managing the farmhands have great skills at getting fruit off the tree quickly, but may not have managerial skills to accompany their other skillset. A new Washington Department of Agriculture program is looking to change that.
April 11, 2022
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WSDA looks to improve ag industry with new training program
Improving management for farming key to reaching 'next level'
WENATCHEE — Ofelio Borges will tell you that a lot of farm work supervisors are promoted because they are good, reliable workers - not because they know very much about managing workers or complying with state law. “Prior to me coming to work for the Washington State Department of Agriculture, I worked as a farm supervisor and management,” said Borges, now the manager of WSDA’s Technical Service and Education Program. “After coming to work for WSDA, I was inspecting different farms and found out that many supervisors, managers like me back in the day, we lacked a lot of training, especially in the leadership aspect of things.” Fast workers tend to be promoted into supervisory...